Victory for Free Speech on Campus: Federal Court Strikes Down Gun Rights Protest Restrictions at Tarrant County College · 16 March 2010
FORT WORTH, Texas, March 16, 2010—Late
yesterday, in a striking victory for the First Amendment on campus, a
federal district court in Texas ruled that a number of restrictions on
students' speech at Tarrant County College (TCC) are unconstitutional.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means
found that TCC's reliance on a policy prohibiting "disruptive
activities" to restrict students Clayton Smith and John Schwertz from
holding an "empty holster" protest violated the First Amendment. Smith
and Schwertz had turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education (FIRE) for help.
"Yesterday's ruling is just the latest in an
unbroken string of legal victories, dating back more than twenty years,
over unconstitutional campus speech codes," FIRE Vice President Robert
Shibley said. "FIRE welcomes the district court's decision as yet
another clear confirmation that restrictions on protected speech—especially
core political speech—simply
will not stand in a court of law."
In addition to ruling that students are
entitled to protest by wearing empty holsters in classrooms, hallways,
and public areas of campus, Judge Means ruled that TCC's sweeping
prohibition on "cosponsorship," which forbade students and faculty from
holding campus events in association with any "off-campus person or
organization," prevented TCC students "from speaking on campus on issues
of any social importance" and was therefore "overly broad" and
"unconstitutional on its face." Smith's and Schwertz's protest was
designed to coincide with the efforts of a national pro-concealed carry
organization, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC).
The lawsuit was filed on November 4, 2009, by
Fort Worth attorney Karin Cagle in cooperation with FIRE and the American
Civil Liberties Union of Texas
(ACLU-TX). On November 6, 2009, Judge Means issued a temporary
restraining order prohibiting TCC from quarantining protected speech to
the school's tiny "free speech zone," holding that continued operation
of the free speech zone would result in "immediate and irreparable
injury" to students' free speech rights. At that point, TCC already had
prohibited students from participating in SCCC empty holster protests
for two
years in a row.
In December, following the district court's
order, TCC voluntarily revised several policies challenged by the
lawsuit, including the free speech zone policy, but TCC also introduced
the unconstitutional ban on cosponsorship. The students' lawsuit was
amended to challenge this new policy and to ask the court to invalidate
the former free speech zone policy because TCC otherwise would be able
to reinstate it following the conclusion of the lawsuit. Judge Means
struck down the cosponsorship ban, stating that "the Court cannot
imagine how the provision could have been written more broadly."
Judge Means also held that the challenge to the
free speech zone was moot because there was no indication that TCC
would revert to the discredited policy.
"Even before yesterday's ruling, TCC's free
speech zone had fallen due to FIRE's efforts. Now, Judge Means has
struck down TCC's latest attempt to restrict free speech on campus,"
FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Will Creeley said. "Because
Smith and Schwertz took a stand to defend their constitutional right to
free expression on campus, all TCC students now enjoy the robust First
Amendment rights to which they are legally entitled."
Much more information on the case, including
FIRE's pre-litigation efforts to remedy the situation, can be found at FIRE's
website and the ACLU-TX
website.
FIRE has defeated free speech zones similar to
TCC's on campuses across the nation, including the University
of North Carolina at Greensboro, West
Virginia University, University
of Nevada at Reno, Citrus
College in California, and Texas
Tech University. FIRE's
Speech Codes Litigation Project—an initiative working to dismantle
unconstitutional speech codes on public university campuses—has won
crucial victories at Shippensburg
University in
Pennsylvania, Texas
Tech University, the State
University of New York at Brockport, Citrus
College in California, San
Francisco State University and the
California State University System, and now Tarrant County College.
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that
unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists,
and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological
spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of
expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation's
colleges and universities. FIRE's efforts to preserve liberty on
campuses across America can be viewed at www.thefire.org.
CONTACT:
Will Creeley, Director of Legal and Public
Advocacy, FIRE: 212-582-3191; will@thefire.org
—
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